Green Bean Casserole

I think that this should, traditionally, use concentrated mushroom soup as the basis of the sauce, but as that's hard to get in the UK this recipe makes a flavoursome mushroom stock instead.

Ingredients:

• 450g closed cup mushrooms, cut in half and sliced thinly
• 25g butter
• 10g dried porcini mushrooms
• 100ml boiling water
• 1 pot of chicken stock gel (or stock cube)
• 300ml milk
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 4 onions, peeled and thinly sliced
• 6 tbsp sunflower oil
• 650g frozen green beans

Method:

1. Place the butter and closed cup mushrooms into a saucepan and cook over a low heat for 30 minutes, or until the mushrooms really start to dry out and brown.
2. Meanwhile, put the porcini mushrooms into the boiling water and leave them for at least 10 minutes to re-hydrate.
3. After the procini mushrooms are nice and soft, remove them from the water (but keep the water) and finely chop them.
4. When the closed cup mushrooms are done, add the porcini mushrooms, their water, the chicken stock gel/cube, the milk, salt and pepper and plain flour into the pan and mix well until all combined.
5. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
6. In a large saucepan, heat the onions and sunflower oil over a medium heat until the onions are nice and soft, about 10 to 15 minutes.
7. Combine the mushroom liquid, half the fried onions (and all of the liquid from the onions) and the green beans together and pour into a large oven proof dish.
8. Cover the dish with foil and bake in the oven for 50 minutes.
9. Remove the foil, sprinkle the remaining fried onions over the top and return to the oven for 15 minutes.
10. Serve with roasted or slow cooked meats such as beef or pork.

Serves 6 as a generous side dish.